As Kasidy headed over to the bar, I leaned over to Renfry. “That whole master thing doesn’t make you do things you don’t want to, does it? It’s more just saying I’m the boss, right?”

He looked down at his empty mug and shook his head. “No, you weren’t fully aware as I attacked. When my chilling touch was moving up you, we somehow bonded. I made my oath, and at that time, I felt you telling me what you wanted. I had options as to what race I would be reborn as. You just flew through them in a few seconds and commanded this one. I don’t know if I had a choice or not; I took it.”

I shook my head slowly and drained the rest of my mug. “That’s not good. I don’t like that kind of power over people. It doesn’t feel right. So right here, right now, I want you to always act as if you didn’t have to listen.”

He gave me a weak smile. “Not sure it works that way, but we will see.”

“Should we break you off from me? Let you be an official here in my lands?”

“No, I want to stay with you. If you will have me. The things that Kasidy and Blink have told me make me want to be here. I might not fully have a choice in many things, but I know that I had the choice to give my oath. I also know that where you go, there will be fighting, which is the fastest way for me to level.”

I rocked back in my chair, laughing. “I mean, there’s fighting everywhere. What makes being with me different?”

Kasidy slipped back to the table with two pitchers. “Arn, I have been attacked more since Bartholomew set me to follow you than in the rest of my life put together. If he hadn’t sent me, I would have known you were special just from the fights you get in.”

I raised an eyebrow. “I hadn’t noticed that many.”

Kasidy rocked forward, laughing. “Come on, even you have to think that it is odd how often we were attacked on the way here.”

I shrugged. “It felt normal so no.”

Renfry grinned. “Yeah, pigtars, goblins, more goblins, wyverns, bandit knights, a town, me, and undead. Normal sure? No, I plan on getting highly leveled with you around.”

I shook my head and laughed. Yeah, the beer wasn’t as strong as the stuff I had been drinking, but we had downed enough that we were all feeling good. When they laid out everything that Kasidy and I fought through just to get where we were, it did sound bad. If they knew everything, I ran into heading downstream….

I smiled and raised my beer. “Fine to leveling may we climb high in our levels together.”

The other two raised their mugs as well. “To leveling!”

As we lowered them down, I heard from behind me a soft, almost scared voice. “May I join you?”

I tried to lean back in my chair, far enough to see who was behind me. If the table had been connected to the floor, it would have worked because my foot would have caught me. However, the table just rocked, and I kept going. I thought I was going to lose my mug but kept it upright and mostly full as my head hit the ground.

Kasidy and Renfry cheered. Irwin, who was the one I was looking up from the floor at, jumped back slightly. I laughed and got up. As I did, I checked my debuffs and saw that I was only mildly inebriated, which meant that I shouldn’t have had this type of fall.

I set my mug down and pointed across the table from me. “Have a seat, Irwin. We can get you something to drink.”

He sat down and looked nervously at me. “I am sorry your lordship. I didn’t mean to make you fall over.”

I laughed and yelled. “Dave a drink for Irwin!”

Then I slammed my beer onto the table and shook my head. “It wasn’t you that made me fall. I misjudged the table that’s all. I thought that it wouldn’t rock but it did and so I went over.”

He shook his head. “Had I known that you were at a debuff level of inebriation I wouldn’t have come over. Are either of you two as well?”

Renfry laughed. “Sadly no. It turned out that beer is poison and so doesn’t affect me at all.”

Kasidy shook her head. “No, I am a barmaid so it takes more than this to mess me up.”

Irwin nodded and gave me a slight bow to me. “I am a buzz, your lordship.”

I raised my eyebrow and was about to ask what he meant when Kasidy started to laugh. She asked, “truly? I had heard of your kind but I didn’t think they were real. Just things talked about in bars to scare new workers.”

He shook his head. “No, I have the ability. Worse yet, mine is level 5.”

Kasidy grinned as my head flopped over to one side. I reached for my mug again, and she slapped my hand away. Then she popped off a quick spell. The world came into focus again, and I didn’t feel like falling out of my chair anymore.

I looked over at Kasidy and asked. “What did you just do, and what’s a buzz?”

Kasidy smiled. “I just hit you with Sober Up. One of the meanest spells that I would use in a bar. It removes your inebriation.”

Irwin sighed. “That’s good. As for what a buzz is. Well, the ability is called Party On. However, what truly is for me is a party killer. Everyone around me that is at least the first level of inebriation will act like they are at five levels above. Just to let you know level 7 is where most people black out. A level one buzz is someone that makes the party better. A level 5 is someone who stops it cold. Now you won’t die from drinking, but passing out will happen.”

Renfry smiled. “Will alcohol tolerance levels help?”

Irwin nodded. “Yes, which means that if you are tolerant level 5 and I am around, you act like you aren’t at all.”

I was a little spaced from going from slight buzz to falling over to stone cold all in a minute. But I got out my question. “Is that why the dwarf didn’t seem to like you?”

Irwin nodded. “One of the reasons. I take it they left me didn’t they?”

I nodded, and Kasidy said. “They ran just as soon as the zombies were down and the lich was running.”

The young man sighed. “Figures, Dalonmut didn’t like me because the guards couldn’t relax if I was around. Also didn’t like that my magic was broken and I hit everyone with my spells. Evie hired me as a favor for my mom last year, but I wasn’t cut out for the life. The hope was that I would get some levels and get my magic under control.”

He sighed and slumped. “The problem is my classes don’t match my spells so getting that control isn’t something that will happen easily.”

Renfry picked up his mug, drained it, and filled it up again. Smiled at me and asked Irwin. “So, what are your classes?”

The young man laughed. “Well, my primary which might explain my ability is Drunkard’s Son. Yes, my father a decorated war mage went and drank enough that he was able to change his class from war mage to Drunk. Then he passed on to me drunkard’s son. My secondary class is something called Last Resort. Turned out that when my dad was drinking and teaching me magic he somehow triggered the requirements for the class.”

Renfry said. “Never heard of it.”

Irwin gave a slight smile. “Most haven’t. It’s a hard class to have, even harder to level. Basically, it is what I did up there. When I attacked everything and drained myself. Spells cast that way, which happens to be the only way I know how to cast, drain all my mana, and half my health. Oh, and all my Sp just to make it funny.”

Renfry leaned back and nodded. “So it is a sacrifice class.”

Irwin nodded. “Honestly the top of the tower was the safest I have ever been using the spells. Sure when I was first learning it wasn’t bad but once I got powerful enough to push enough mana around. Well, I couldn’t practice anywhere.”

Kasidy asked. “What would it take for you to pick up a different primary class?”

If the man could look sadder, he would have. “Well, I could take the upgrade to drunkard myself, or my dad could die. Until he does, however, it doesn’t look good for me to change the class.”

Kasidy shook her head. “I mean don’t you just have to get your secondary class a higher level, and it will bump it?”

He laughed. “Yeah, but my dad’s been drinking all my life. I have level 35 in Drunkard’s Son. I am only level 12 in Last Resort, and honestly, I don’t want to get that class higher.”

I shook my head. I didn’t know enough about all of this. I needed to know, however, because I might could trigger a class change and then not be as stuck as I am.

I asked. “Surely there’s something else you could do?”

He sighed. “There are things that I could do, but it would be hard. Since it is a Son class, it’s a base level. So I could take any class that I had the skills for that was an advanced class.”

Kasidy nodded. “That’s how most people do it, but why can’t you?”

Irwin snorted. “Because I was such a good son. My combined level is 47, which means that to learn a new skill, I have to have 188 successes to get to level 0 and then 196 to get to level 2. I have to get all of an advanced class to level 10. So if it were the easiest advanced class of Beggar, I would need to get three skills up that high. Not that it is impossible, just highly unlikely.”

I nodded. “Better to wait than pick up a class you don’t want and limit yourself moving forward?”

He sighed and nodded. “Yes, the thing is, the normal primaries for Last Stand would all be great, but no way for me to get.”

Kasidy smiled slightly. “What are the normal ones?”

Irwin looked up. “War Mage, Court Mage, and Royal guard are the three main ones. My secondary class is restricted, and I shouldn’t have it. My dad had it, and he shouldn’t have taught me.”

I looked at my beer. I wanted to take a drink, but I didn’t. I was too worried that I would fall out of my chair again if I drank too much, and I wasn’t sure how sober I was from the spell.

I pulled my beard for a moment. “Okay, so spells are the easiest to level, right?”

Kasidy nodded, and Renfry shook his head. Irwin shrugged and said. “Kind of; once you know it, then yes, because you get a cast every time you use it. However, learning a spell is hard. That’s why most people only have their class spells. Getting ones outside their class requires a ton of work.”

I smiled. “So if you could pick a type of mage that you wanted to be which would it be?”

Irwin picked up his mug for a moment and took a sip. “Growing up, I wanted to be a war mage like my dad. However, as I got older, I didn’t want to be anything like him. Honestly, if I could, and I know I can’t. But I dream of being a healer.”

Renfry smiled and laughed. “With spells like what I saw you use, you want to be a healer?”

Irwin gave a small smile and nodded. “Crazy, I know. I still wouldn’t have a way to only target friendlies with those spells. But yeah, if I had a way to do what the lady did with her spell, I would take it. I have seen too many hurt. I would love to be able to heal.”

I sat up. “Okay, I don’t know the ins and outs of the healer classes. Which one is the easiest to reach, and which one do you want to be if you could?”

I watched as Irwin’s eyes glazed for a few minutes as he looked off. Then he said, “If I could, I would be a cleric, but I don’t know which god I would follow. They have many great healing spells for everything. Outside of the holy healers, I think that the best I could be hopeful for would be Life mage. The easiest I could get would be a personal health mage.”

I gave a confused look. “Personal Health mage?”

He nodded. “They are why most high nobles use. They only heal a single person, and they attune their magic to that one. They focus on damage transfer and then self-healing. They also learn things like ease tension and beautify.”

I nodded. “So I don’t know if I have enough spell scrolls to get you to the healing class that you want. But if you swear into my retinue for 20 years as my healer, I’ll give you enough scrolls to turn you into a healer.”

He shook his head. “There’s no way that you would do that for me. You just met me, and there is no way.”

I nodded. “Look, I get hurt a lot, and as Renfry just reminded me, I fight too much. Having a healer around would be great. If that’s what you want, then that would be super helpful.”

He smiled and nodded. “If you are being truthful, then my lord I would serve as your healer for all time.”

I stood up. “Wait here. I’ll be back with those scrolls.”

* * *